Another senior coronial investigator for the NT Police has told an inquest that former assistant commissioner Nick Anticich shut down the coronial investigation into the death of Kumanjayi Walker because its findings conflicted with the criminal investigation into Constable Zach Rolfe.

Former commander David Proctor also told the coronial inquest that senior police figures deleted recordings of high-level meetings that involved discussion of criminal and coronial investigations into Constable Rolfe’s actions the night he fatally shot Mr Walker in Yuendumu.

Mr Proctor also revealed that the “racist” text messages exchanged between Alice Springs police members in 2019 were sent to the NT Police’s internal disciplinary body in November 2020 but that no action had been taken to reprimand anyone for the messages.

The inquest heard earlier in the week that former superintendent and initial coronial investigator Scott Pollock had raised a number of concerns about the police’s criminal investigation being biased against Constable Rolfe, including that “critical evidence” had not been provided to key witnesses, that other witnesses may have provided statements to be used in the criminal investigation that they thought were for the coronial investigation, that Constable Rolfe’s training could not be established and that the the police’s use-of-force expert was not qualified.

Mr Pollock, a highly-respected officer, was removed from the investigation after raising his concerns and later suffered health issues that led to his early retirement from the force.

On Friday, retired commander David Proctor, who assumed the role of officer in charge of the coronial investigation in November 2020 following Mr Pollock’s removal, told the inquest both he and Mr Pollock had raised issues under the heading of “investigative bias expert witness” in their coronial report “that we were unable to resolve” involving the police’s use-of-force expert at the murder trial Sgt Andrew Barram who the investigators were concerned did not understand current training procedures and had perceived conflicts.

“These concerns are in the report by Mr Pollock and they all raise concerns of potential investigative bias,” Mr Proctor said. “And then I clearly state, the summary and rationale for these concerns are detailed … which are taken directly from the draft report.”

Mr Proctor said Sgt Barram’s recent claims at the inquest that he was not biased were “hard” for him to confirm “whether bias was or wasn’t present” after 12 months away from the case.

“Obviously Mr Pollock had a more firm view,” he said.

The concerns centred on Sgt Barram’s continued referral to out of date training, his close connection to the NT Police force and other matters.

Under questioning from Constable Rolfe’s lawyer Luke Officer, Mr Proctor was asked about minutes from a meeting of the joint management committee overseeing the criminal and coronial investigations in which the chair of that committee Mr Anticich suspended the coronial investigation in November 2020.

“DP, I assume that’s you,” Mr Officer said to Mr Proctor, “‘questioned whether this means all evidence will not be provided to the court, but rather information that fits the prosecution. Nick Anticich noted that investigators do not agree with SP’s report and recommendations’.”

Mr Proctor agreed that Mr Anticich did not like Mr Pollock’s findings.

The minutes appear to show that Mr Proctor and Mr Pollock disagreed with Mr Anticich about suspending the investigation and were concerned that the criminal investigation presented “risks” to the NT Police force.

Mr Proctor said he and Mr Pollock were at that time not investigating “per se”, but rather compiling the final report for the Coroner. They both held concerns about the appropriateness of Sgt Barram as the use of force expert.

“If we came across this information and did not provide it to either the Assistant Commissioner for them to – for [Crime Command] to then discuss with the DPP – then that placed the organisation in a significant risk, and us in a significant risk,” he said.

“And given that we were acting and investigating on behalf of the Coroner, it also placed the Coroner’s office at significant risk. And as I say there, it was not a risk that I was willing to take.

“We were investigating on behalf of the Coroner. And in accordance with the Coroners Act, and – and I didn’t believe we were undermining the investigation, or doing any of those things. We were just doing due diligence.”

Mr Proctor then revealed that the recordings of the joint management committee meeting where Mr Anticich suspended the coronial investigation and the argument that played out had been deleted.

“I like to keep minutes but as I say, that wasn’t my decision. It’s just a practice … for the organisation,” he said, adding that handwritten notes were not taken at the time because it was being recorded.

“We were of the view that the audio recording was even better than our handwritten notes. At that stage, I didn’t know it was going to be deleted.”

It was determined in court that the coronial investigation was not completely shut down, but was suspended for three days, although it remains unclear why it was reinstated.

Mr Anticich told the inquest on Tuesday that he felt shutting down the coronial inquest was necessary because he had determined – after a year of investigations – that it was “totally inappropriate” to have both a coronial and a criminal investigation running concurrently.

He added that he had sought “advice on whether this was appropriate” but did not say who provided the advice to shut it down.

Mr Anticich told the inquest he could not recall a phone call he reportedly made to Mr Pollock that had been described as “abusive, intimidatory and threatening” about Sgt Barram’s lack of knowledge around proper police training and the coronial investigation’s findings.

“You repeated on several occasions, ‘do you know how fucking embarrassing this is?’,” another lawyer for Constable Rolfe had put to Mr Anticich on Tuesday.

“And importantly he [Mr Pollock] says that you demanded to know what information he was passing on to the Coroner,”

“I don’t recall that,” Mr Anticich replied.

Redacted drafts of Mr Pollock’s and Mr Proctor’s reports were later provided to Constable Rolfe’s defence team after their existence was leaked following Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker’s attempt to suppress them.

The full reports have still not been publicly disclosed.

Mr Chalker had lawyers object to their release ahead of Constable Rolfe’s criminal trial. While Sgt Barram was used as the prosecution’s star witness for the trial, the jury did not agree with his claims that shots two and three at Mr Walker by Constable Rolfe were unjustified and acquitted Rolfe of murder.

In September, the NT Independent revealed that parts of one of Mr Pollock’s draft coronial reports found that police investigators forced witnesses to provide statements for the criminal investigation with threats of disciplinary action if they didn’t participate, that overall training at the Police College was flawed, that Sgt Barram was biased and didn’t understand use-of-force laws, and also found that a supposedly independent report prepared by an American use-of-force “expert” had been “edited” at the request of investigators.

‘Racist texts’ sent to Professional Standards Command but no action taken: Proctor

The inquest also heard racist text messages between Constable Rolfe and other officers in Alice Springs were only discovered a year after the shooting when accessing Constable Rolfe’s phone.

Mr Proctor said the text messages did not play a heavy role in his report and that he sent them to Professional Services Command as a possible disciplinary breach but said it appeared the executive did not take any action.

“As a prescribed member at the rank of commander, that is why that report was drafted and forwarded to the Professional Standards Command for further investigation of those matters,” he said.

“We had got the information. It was always going to be attached to the brief. I have to be honest though, we didn’t do, in my report, I didn’t address those things particularly, but … some of the text messages as we now know, I think it was pretty obvious that they had racial connotations to them.”

But Mr Proctor said he did not hear about any action being taken about the texts.

“In my mind, Professional Standards Command would then probably pick up some of those other members, who have participated in sending those types of messages,” he said.

Under questioning from a NAAJA lawyer, Mr Proctor agreed that it was important for the NT Police force to recognise institutional racism before it could address it.

“I think there’s a step before that which is systems in place to identify it, address it and perhaps then provide that acknowledgement,” he said.

“Similar to where we talk about the red flags, the early intervention and I think it is an education process. It has to be that people identify those things, acknowledge that they’re wrong and you have a system which constantly you have systems in place which make that a constant awareness within the workplace or within the police force.”

He was also critical of how police in Yuendumu the night of the shooting treated Mr Walker’s family by lying to them and pretending Mr Walker was still alive when he had in fact died.

Mr Proctor also expressed that overall there were “significant failures” in the oversight of the duties of the IRT members the night of the shooting in Yuendumu.

The inquest will continue next week before more hearings are held in the new year.